The 2012 election was defined by the incredibly narrow 0.2% victory of the incumbent President Viktor Luxenberg over the unorthodox candidacy of Lena Herrlein. A beloved high school principal and leader of the 2009 teachers’ strikes, Herrlein was drafted by a desperate LPP to combat Viktor Luxenberg’s militarism. Running a fiery, grassroots campaign focused entirely on domestic welfare and education, Herrlein achieved a massive 11.7% surge for the liberals in the first round. However, Luxenberg successfully mobilized the rural base, painting the former teacher as a naive pacifist and the LPP as a ‘group of children’, no longer connected to the competent era of Ivan Piltz. In the runoff, the BNA machine held firm, incredibly narrowly defeating Herrlein and securing Luxenberg’s second term.
The vote counting continued over a period of four days, known as the November Unrest. Several pro-Herrlein protestors were arrested by the OAB (the federal secret service of Boskenmark) and police cars were set on fire in Vost and Rudarja.
The most glaring absence in the 2012 election was the total lack of a unified socialist candidate. The undisputed leader of the working class, Goran Fleischacker, was entirely absent from the country. Fleeing severe political persecution by President Viktor Luxenberg’s intelligence apparatus, Fleischacker had sought covert exile across the border in Kresimiria’s District X. Without his terrifyingly disciplined leadership, the Progressive Party collapsed into bitter infighting and failed to field a candidate, abandoning the working-class electorate to fringe regionalists and inadvertently clearing the path for LPP candidate Lena Herrlein to dominate the opposition.
Despite the close result, the election is broadly agreed to be free and fair. While Viktor Luxenberg is viewed as authoritarian by most Nastavak countries like the Republic of Kaskiv, the Kingdom of Kruhlstutt and the Divine Republic of Kresimiria, in 2012 Luxenberg had not yet begun the consolidation of the state or civil service in a way which would allow him to rig elections. His large base in Vost and the coastal east brought him a thin unified front for victory.
| Candidate | Party | Second Round | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Viktor Luxenberg * | Bosken National Alliance (BNA) | 50.1% | -4.0% |
| Lena Herrlein | Liberal People's Party (LPP) | 49.9% | +5.7% |
| Candidate | Party | First Round | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Viktor Luxenberg * | Bosken National Alliance (BNA) | 49.3% | +6.5% |
| Lena Herrlein | Liberal People's Party (LPP) | 44.5% | +11.7% |
| Dr. Hannah Heilbronn | Green-Left Coalition | 4.1% | New |
| Ivan 'The Miner' Jager | Regionalist Front | 2.1% | New |
Turnout: 71%